God’s work: Why will genuine faith not cease to work?
Context: Since man cannot straighten what is crooked or naturally perceive the redemptive work of God (Ecc 1-3), we depend on Him to teach us in His sanctuary how to trust Him, instead of our accomplishments (Ecc 4-6). On this road, chapters 7-11 first instruct believers how to persevere in this faith so that it bears fruit, sanctifying our life and work. While one hand rests in the hand of the Father, the other sows seed where He does (Ecc 9:1).
Outline: The main lesson of Ecc 9 about godly wisdom for those who began to live by faith is that they must continue to live by faith for God to do his work in them, even in afflictions:
- vv1-6: Even after joining the narrow road of faith, believers must never forget that their salvation is entirely God’s work: In our own best interest, God has left neither ourselves nor random circumstances in charge to make us love or hate Him (v1), for all men alike are too madly evil that they could love God as they should (v3). Since salvation so depends on God from beginning to end, there is hope for every repentant sinner who entrusts himself to Him in time (vv4-6): Nothing but faith in the work of God is needed to find the love of God and thus become sanctified by the power of that love (v5).
- vv7-16: When hearing that all of salvation, including election and faith, are the work of God’s grace alone (cf Eph 2:8-10), it will provoke the question: “Shall we then go on sinning so that grace may increase?” (Ro 6:1). Like the New Testament, Ecc 9:7-17 answers this question with a resounding no: By continuing to trust that the results and a lasting reward after this life are in God’s hand, believers now eat and drink (v7), fulfill God’s law (v8), love (v9), and work hard (v10) with God’s approval in ‘white robes’ (v7), the gift of righteousness (cf Lev 16:30-32; Ps 132:9; Isa 61:10; Rev 7:14) in the joy of the Holy Spirit (‘anointed with oil’, v8, cf Ps 89:20; Isa 61:3). Although, wisdom teaches them that the present life is still marred by sufferings. Calamities befall believers and unbelievers alike (vv11-16). Faith that God is in control even of man’s love and hatred (vv1-2) is not fatalism, for it led Kohelet to appreciate even more (not less) man’s duty to act wisely (vv17-18).
How to use this study: Since the questions below will be too many for one session, you may want to study this chapter in two parts (Q1-4, and Q5-7), using e.g. only the first 3 personal questions in Q7 with the first.
Warm-up: What things in life make you feel frustrated, maybe to the point that you are tempted to give up and resign?
Read Ecclesiastes 9
Background: Some commentators believe this chapter contradicts gospel doctrine, ascribing its conclusion to feigned human rationalism, e.g.:
- Gaebelein, or Guzik: …In light of death, live life and make the best of a bad thing… In the 1960s there was a beer commercial where the announcer said something like this: “You only go around once in life, so you’ve got to grab for all the gusto you can.” The ad writers for Schlitz beer could have properly given credit to Solomon for the idea…
- Joseph Parker: In this chapter we have a number of loose and disconnected notes about human life. The writer seems to have jotted down things as they came into his mind. His book is rather a heap of stones than an orderly building. Perhaps it is hardly just to regard the Book of Ecclesiastes as a piece of elaborate and continuous logic… It would be possible… to make it almost contribute to an argument for atheism,…..it is rather a gathering of miscellaneous remarks than an attempt to establish a process of final and authoritative reasoning. Sometimes Coheleth becomes religious, as in the first verse of this chapter. He has made many attempts to get God out of the way altogether, but somehow the holy Presence returns….
1) v1 starts with: “For all this I laid to heart, examining it all…”. Would you expect such contemplation to produce only a ‘heap of stones’? Why not?
- What may make this text (unjustly) appear like a ‘heap of stones’ to a reviewer who made such a trashy comment?
- i.e. does anything strike you as potentially incoherent in this chapter, or difficult how it may fit with the rest of the Bible?
- How does v1 connect this chapter to the previous?
- KJV translates Eccl 9:1 correctly “For all this…”, because 9:1-6 is the evidence for the conclusion in 8:17: So what was the conclusion of 8:17? [Man cannot find out by himself God’s work: => man is not in control, and faith does not change this]
- What ‘evidence’ in v1 might justify the preceding conclusion? =>
2) v1 continues (lit.): “…examining it all how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know before.” Which ‘deeds of the righteous and wise’ is he talking about?
- Who are those described as ‘righteous and wise’? cf Ecc 8:1 *
- Which of their ‘deeds’ is v1 talking about?
- ‘Love and hate’ towards whom? =>
- 3 views among commentators:
- God’s disposition towards men (which cannot be discerned based on calamities that befall believers and unbelievers alike, v2): e.g. Puritans
- Man’s disposition towards fellow man (since v6 (again) speaks of love & hate of man): e.g. Delitzsch
- Man’s affection towards God [independent of circumstances, since the same event happens to the clean and the unclean, to those who curse God and those who don’t, to the saint and to the sinner alike, v3]: e.g. Poole =>
- God’s disposition towards men (which cannot be discerned based on calamities that befall believers and unbelievers alike, v2): e.g. Puritans
- Whose ‘deeds’ of love or hate “…are in the hand of God” according to the New Testament? cf 1 Jn 4:19; 1Pet 2:8-9 [as in God’s act of creation, cf Gen 1:3; Jn 5:20-21+25]
- v1: …, and what does it mean that they are ‘in the hand of God’? (Are the deeds of men in the hand of God because God ‘foreknows’ them? Or does God foreknow them because they are in his hand?) =>
- Analogy: When you bake a piece of bread or clay, do you decide what ingredients to use because you foreknow what the oven will bake? Or do you foreknow what will emerge from the oven because you yourself decided what to create?
- cf Ro 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…=> Can predestination be the same as foreknowledge if Paul distinguished them? [For the resulting conundrum of ‘free’ will and God’s ‘foreknowledge’ versus predestination, see Ecc 10. In Ecc 9, time will be too short to discuss Kohelet’s position]
- Read 1Jn 4:19 Why does this matter? [Main point of Ecc 9: We depend on Him from first to last, also to do the good works for which he prepared us]
- v2: “….As [is] the good, so [is] the sinner, and he who swears [is] as he who shuns an oath”. Who are those who ‘shun an oath’? =>
- By inserting the verb [is], translators imply that the godly are like the ungodly: But in what sense? =>
- v3: The same evil befalls both saints and sinners…
- Why does v2 nevertheless regard some as ‘clean’ ?
3) vv4-6: If all things including the human heart are in God’s hand (v2), why is man still held accountable for his rebellion?
- v4: Who are the ‘living dogs’, and in what sense are they ‘better’ than dead lions? [Lions were feared, dogs were despised: A metaphor for evildoers, cf Ps 22:16; Mt 7:6; Rev 22:15] =>
- In the parable about poor Lazarus and a rich man in hell who envies him for his comfort in heaven, the rich man had 5 brothers who were still living the high life (Lk 16:19-31). In what sense was their hope ‘better’ than that of their deceased brother?** =>
- v5: Was Kohelet’s hope for the living that they can still have fun now because there is no judgment after death even if they are ungodly? Or did he rather affirm the resurrection and a final judgment, cf Ecc 12:7?
- Already in Ecc 3, Kohelet affirmed his faith in eternal life: The book is about how to partake in it through faith in the work of God (Ecc 3:11,15,17). If v5 does not question the resurrection, what else is its meaning? =>
- Do vv5-6 leave room for ideas of reincarnation and Karma? Do good works count as angel points for an upgrade in a next life? Why not? =>
- v6: “Their memory is forgotten here and they have no more share… under the sun“, could this statement mean that Kohelet now questions what he said earlier about eternal life and an inevitable final judgment in due time after death? Why not?
4) v11-12: Why would one expect victory for the swift and the strong, and a reward for the wise?
- Why then are believers warned by wisdom to not expect this, v12?
- And why do they need to know? => Read Ro 8:20-23 [All creation is subject to futility and still ‘groaning’]; and 2Cor 4:7-11 [The believer must not expect to be exempt from afflictions: Without afflictions, we would too swiftly forget that the power of God’s work is not our own]
Part 2:
5) vv7-12: In those who now trust that their reconciliation with God depends on His work from beginning to end (Eccl 3:11), what does such faith change in the way they now live?
- How does faith in God’s work make gifts such as bread and wine ‘satisfying’, v7? cf Ro 5:1; Heb 11:4
- Why then did Kohelet still doubt God’s approval until he found faith? Hint: Why do we need to hear first, Ro 10:14? (cf study notes on Eccl 3:11; 3:22)
- vv8-10: Why will faith not take God’s grace as a free pass to “go on sinning so that grace may abound” (Ro 6:1)? cf Ro 6:1-4
- v8: What does it mean to “Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head”?
- Priests only wore linen for intercession (1 Sam 2:18-19 ; Lev 16:30-32) => How do followers of Jesus keep their garments permanently white? cf Isa 61:1-3 and Col 3:12
- v8: What does it mean to “Let your garments be always white; let not oil be lacking on your head”?
- v9: How will faith impact those who formerly engaged in polygamy and promiscuity? How credible do you think would such counsel be if it came from the actual Solomon?
- v10: How can those of faith recognize God’s will for their professional calling, and how will it influence their work ethics?
6) vv13-18: Is Kohelet’s parable of the wise defender of a besieged city just another cynical complaint about the injustice of this world? Why not?
- What encouragement and/or warning do vv14-15 provide to pilgrims who turned from their own dead works to faith as the only way to do God’s work?
- Hint: How might they wrongly expect faith to impact their safety, wealth and influence to make a difference in this world as followers of Christ?
- Read again 9:18-10:1. What is the warning here, and why do even those who already began to walk by faith need it? cf Mk 7:21; Jer 17:9; Prov 20:9 (More about this: Jam 1:14; 3:14; 4:1)
- What danger lies in ignoring the warning of godly wisdom that residual foolishness and double-mindedness will always remain lurking even in the saints?
- v18: What happens if such residual foolishness is not held in check by godly wisdom?
7) Personal and application
- How do you apply the above insight that our salvation is in God’s hand? Does Kohelet conclude ‘Well then, go and have fun living like an Epicurean!’? – or as touted by the Schlitz beer ad from the 60s? Why not?
- Do you think predestination and faith that God works our salvation are a reason to lean back and do nothing? Or are they intended as a powerful incentive to go and work hard? Why? How do you see this dynamic at work in your own life?
- Do you agree with the assessment that every believer is a saint and a sinner (“simul iustus et peccator”, Martin Luther)? Why or why not? What did Ecc 9:3 tell you about that?
- What spiritual disciplines help you to keep residual foolishness and evil of your own heart in check without falling back into legalism and works righteousness? [Jam 4:8, addressing believers and non-believers alike: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Believers are called to draw near not just once, but each day, cf Heb 10:19-23]
- How can you encourage other believers to pursue truth and wisdom for the good it will produce, no matter how dangerous it may get, and even if they get no praise from men for it?
- If you work at what your hand finds to do ‘with all your might’, how does that involve your specific personality? Do you (only) follow every spark of creativity, or are you also methodical about planning and organization (or vice versa?) How can faith produce the best in you and of your gifts and protect you from your weaknesses?
* i.e. those who have begun to live by faith (Ecc 4-6) and who are now instructed in the godly wisdom of Ecc 7-11.
** The rich man in hell is worse off than his brothers who are still called to repent while alive (Lk 16:28)
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